PEACEFUL CHRISTMAS How one couple’s Gloucestershire renovation project created a warm family home

CHRISTMAS

Simpl what m Gan

FEATURE SARA BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY DAN DUCHARS

d Martin rshire

A small Christmas tree, plenty of foliage and several candles create a cosy atmosphere in the dining room. The upholstered bench was a happy find outside an antiques shop and was earmarked for reupholstering but the couple loved it just the way it was. The beams and ceiling are painted Light Bronze Green from Little Greene.

ABOVE LEFT The couple’s lifestyle ethos stretches to Christmas, keeping parcels natural with brown paper and pretty ribbons. ABOVE RIGHT Natural linens and foliage maintain the laid-back yet chic style and create a welcoming table. LEFT Simple foliage with brightly coloured berries foraged from the garden is attached to the front door with a pretty ribbon.

Designers Elle Kemp and Martin Gane take a relaxed approach to decorating their home for Christmas. “For many years I would just buy lots of oranges and liberally spread them around the house with a few bits of greenery and pine cones thrown in for good measure,” says Elle. “The oranges would get eaten, the pine cones would end up on the fire and there was little left to pack away at the end of the holidays.”

Simplicity and sustainability are key to the ethos of the couple’s design practise, Ridge & Furrow, and it has shaped the home they share with their young sons Claude, aged eight, and Gilbert, five.

Before they had met each other, both Elle and Martin had dreamt of building a home from scratch – it was quite possibly their first-date conversation on the topic that clinched their future together. Yet, suitable plots are hard to come by in the UK and it was necessary to widen their criteria to find a home they could fall in love with.

That home turned out to be a Cotswold-stone former piggery outside Stroud which sits in less than 

A corridor runs the length of the ground floor, one side of which is finished in Drab by Farrow & Ball. At this end a chest of drawers provides a resting place for a large bowl filled with brightly coloured baubles to add a low-key yet jolly festive touch.

‘The stone sink in the kitchen sums up everything we have done here; it was great value and came with huge amounts of age and character’

ABOVE The doubleheight kitchen is a wonderful mix of exposed brick walls and dark painted cladding and cabinetry. Cooking centres around an Everhot range and the stone sink is one of Elle’s favourite salvage buys. Reclaimed iroko work surfaces bring warmth to the space. an acre but includes a meadow, orchard, courtyard and vegetable plot. They bought it in 2012 and moved into it in 2016. “It was one of two farm outbuildings with permission to develop,” says Elle.

Fortunately for the couple, the property already had a new roof and footings. However, unusually for such a building, it also had listed status as it falls within the curtilage of a Grade II listed farmhouse. Gaining planning permission was a lengthy process – despite good relations with the planning office and a shared desire to retain as much of the fabric of the building as possible – but it has resulted in a home that makes best use of the compact space and still pays homage to the building’s agricultural past. A straight hallway runs the length of the ground floor granting access to a living/dining room, kitchen, snug, bathroom and two bedrooms, plus there is an office and an unusual split-level bathroom above.

“Building regulations prevent us from having living spaces on the upper level, but that does not cover bathrooms,” explains Elle. “When we were looking for ways to make the most of the tall ceilings, Martin had this idyllic vision for a truly relaxing bathroom with just a bath and nothing else. Although we always try and put a chair as big as we can manage in any bathroom; it makes it such a luxurious place to be.”

The couple have sourced fixtures and fittings for the house from reclamation yards and there is an emphasis

on quality and patina of age throughout the house. ABOVE LEFT Spiced Elle describes her favourite piece as the shallow punch and mince stone sink in the kitchen: “It sums up everything we have done here. It was great value and came pies bring warmth to the soul. Christmas is a time for the with huge amounts of age and character but it also family to hunker has its compromises. We have had to learn how down and enjoy to work with it – we are really not into making simple pleasures. lives easy for ourselves.” ABOVE RIGHT The kitchen has a wonderful utilitarian feel, inspired by the sculleries and pantries of old. Yet there is Shelving provides display space for gathered treasures warmth here too – this is a place to hunker down, to in the kitchen. enjoy the sense of comfort and familiarity. “The idea RIGHT Elle and for the black gloss paintwork came directly from our Martin run an interior favourite pub, The Woolpack in Slad, which is full of Laurie Lee memorabilia, and has these amazing black and garden design business near Stroud, ridgeandfurrow.co.ukgloss settles,” explains Elle. “The dark colours in the lower section make it an intimate space but then there

ABOVE & LEFT There is a raw and honest beauty to the interiors in this home. Reclaimed, antique and junk shop finds bring real character too. Elle and Martin used English Salvage (formerly Leominster Reclamation & Architectural Salvage) as a source for doors and fixtures, and Sprauncy in Stroud as a treasure trove to rummage in.

is also this tremendous height that draws you up and gives you room to breathe.”

Elsewhere in the house, the colour palette has earthy shades of olive, gold and tan; a nod to the landscape perhaps, but also inspired by the colours of one of Martin’s old tweed jackets.

During the renovation, Martin took on almost all the work himself and boosted his skills by assisting the few tradespeople they brought in to help out on specialist tasks. “He laid the floors, made all the timberwork, taught himself how to lay out stairs and how to apply lime plaster, as well as working with all kinds of sustainable materials,” remarks Elle. “I think we really have learnt how to build a house after all.”

The proportions of this building have posed some interesting challenges along the way. “It took us a while to get the fireplace right in the sitting room,” explains Elle. “We wanted a stove set into a traditional fireplace, which sounds simple enough, but it is a small

In the master bedroom, comfort is layered over the raw beauty of exposed brick, bare lime plaster and stone cobbles on the floor. An antique tapestry hanging behind the bed was an online auction find. The vintage Kantha throws on the bed came from Ian Snow. The beams and ceiling are painted in Sand, an archive colour from Farrow & Ball.

The boys each have a cosy cabin bed in their room, this one painted in Riverbank from Earthborn paints. The rocking horse was made by Elle’s grandfather and just happened to fit in the cubby hole.

The couple describe their design style as ‘creating spaces which feel like they’ve always been there’, to which their house is testament

room requiring a small stove, yet it is also a very tall room, so the scale needed to be right.” The couple designed the surround several times but, in the end, the chance find of suitable materials led the way. “Martin found the stone surround in pieces in the farmer’s shed and bought it as rubble,” explains Elle. “We glued it back together and it just worked; we used it exactly as it was without sanding back or removing paint.”

The couple describe their design style as “creating spaces which feel like they’ve always been there”, to which their home is testament. It has a sense of permanence and solidity, with a variety of textures providing plenty of interest. Elle point outs that “it is not a house that needs to be dressed”.

This time of year is an opportunity for the couple to spend quiet time at home with their boys. They put up a Christmas tree a day or two before the main event, and it is decorated with simple lights and some favourite decorations under the direction of Claude and Gilbert. “We tend to focus on simple pleasures, such as the children’s play and sitting by the fire,” says Elle. “We all love to hibernate,” she says. “This is a very soulful place – this house is part of us.” n

ABOVE LEFT In the master bedroom, a vignette stands out against the raw beauty of exposed brick. ABOVE RIGHT In the bathroom, the timber is painted in Farrow & Ball’s Clunch and the flagstone flooring is from Winchcombe Reclamation.